Time to Grow Up
by kimtom4eva
Summary: The former rangers head off to college. Some are at the same school, some aren't, all original rangers will be mentioned and have small parts. But most of the story will be centered on Zack, Rocky, Adam, Tanya, Kim, and Tommy. Full summary inside.


**I don't own the Power Rangers or any characters associated with the show. I don't own the University of Georgia gym dogs or any coaches associated with them. I do however own any characters I decide to make up. I don't care if you use my characters, just please let me know so I can read the story.**

**Summary: Set post Turbo. It's been six months since the letter; Muranthias took place three months ago. Kim leaves Florida for college and runs into an old friend. This will involve insights into the lives of former rangers, Kim and Tommy will be mentioned the most. This may become a TK reunion in later chapters, but will not be centered around a reunion and therefore will not be called a TK fic just yet. They will however meet up at some point soon.**

**Ch. 1-Welcome to College  
Athens, Georgia  
August 1997**

Kimberly Hart left her hometown of Angel Grove, with a world famous coach, for the chance to compete in an international gymnastics competition. She was recruited by the University of Georgia after winning a gold, 2 silver's and a bronze medal at the '96 Pan Global Games. She tried for the Olympics but due to problems with her training she had just missed finishing in 10th place, just outside the alternates.

With her opportunity gone she decided to give up gymnastics. After screwing everything up with Tommy and her friends, who she had shut out for months, she decided that she couldn't go back to Angel Grove. She was packing her things and preparing for the move from Miami to New York where she planned on attending school, when she received a call from Suzanne Yoculan, the head coach of the University of Georgia gymnastics program. At first she refused, saying she was done with gymnastics. However she was a very talented elite gymnast and the Gym dogs only take the best, so they weren't quite ready to give up on her. She finally agreed to compete for the program when she was offered a full scholarship and a brand new Mustang Convertible.

That's how she wound up walking around the beautiful campus in Athens, Georgia on this warm summer day. Classes wouldn't be starting for another two days but she had a mandatory team meeting. She found her room in the team dorm. She only had one roommate, she recognized the girl as one of her US teammates, who had taken a huge step on her vault at Olympic trials and finished outside of the top 10.

"Oh my god Holly Adams?!" Kim exclaimed as she threw her bags down and ran to hug the girl.

"Kimberly Hart?" Holly asked embracing her friend and former US teammate "You're my roommate? Thank god, I thought I would be stuck with someone I didn't know and you know me, I'm not the greatest at making friends."

"Don't worry girl, hang with me and you'll have plenty of friends." Kim said. Holly was from a small town in Texas. She started gymnastics at three years old, she was a 1992 Olympian but injuries had kept her from consistent training in the years before the 1996 Olympics. She had made the Pan Global team as an uneven bars specialist, she just didn't have enough time to train the other three events. It had led to problems at trials, like Kim she was ready to give up when she received the call from the Gym dogs. She decided to give it a try and so she ended up in the same room as the girl who had been her closest friend on the team. Some might say that it was planned that way. The girls got reacquainted as they walked to the team meeting.

For the next two hours, they sat in the training complex meeting the rest of the team and coaches and listening to the rules and academic requirements. They found that the training for collegiate gymnastics was totally different than what they were used to. They would have their first practice next week. The girls returned to their dorm and changed clothes, some of the upperclassmen wanted to take the younger girls out and show them around town.

Two days later classes began. Holly was a Political Science and Business Major, with a minor in Marketing. Kim was majoring in Physical Therapy and Sports Medicine with a minor in Dance and Business. After taking placement exams, they determined that they would only have a few pre-requisite and business courses together. Other than that they wouldn't be spending to much class time together. With neither knowing anyone at the school, they set off to classes alone. When Kim walked into her dance class in the afternoon, the teacher said that students were going to be assigned a partner and were to sit with that partner for the year. Kim was hoping she would have a good partner that actually knew how to dance and would be able to pick up choreography as quickly as she could. She was so busy thinking, that she missed the next guy that walked through the door and sat down in the back of the room. Finally the teacher started her introduction.

"Hello I'm Misty Wallace, y'all can just call me Misty." She spoke in her southern accent "I was born and raised in Atlanta. When I turned 18, I auditioned and became a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader way back in the early 80's, and I've danced all over the world since. My husband and I are also World Ballroom Champions. For this class, you will be expected to learn and choreograph dances in all styles. Now, as I told some of you when you came in, you will be paired up guy/girl and that person will remain you're partner for as long as you're in this program. That being said, not all dances will be partner dances; however when we do have partner dances, we want you to be comfortable and trust you're partner. The best way to accomplish this is to keep the same partner through your college career. If you're partner ends up quitting or failing out, and make no mistake about it, you can fail this program, you will be assigned a new partner. You will also be put on two separate dance teams for group dances. Are there any questions?" Everyone shook their heads that they under stood.

"Okay then when I call your name, please find your partner and sit with together. Team 1 please sit on the right side of the room, team 1 will be as follows:  
Cole Abbot/Candice Carter  
Dylan Cook/Emily Hall  
Tim Hendrix/ Jessica Underwood  
Landon Fitzsimmons/Kari Mosby  
Mark Hamilton/Katie Henderson  
Skyler Young/McKenzie Reed"

"Team 2, please sit on the left side of the room when I call your names:  
Mike Long/ Melanie Brooks  
Aidan Shuttler/Kelsey Crawford  
Nick Jones/Chelsea Michaels  
Jacob Williams/Angie Azure  
Tony Guzman/Gabi Lopez  
Zack Taylor/Kimberly Hart  
Everyone please find your partners and spend the rest of the class getting to know each other."

"No way" Kim said turning to see Zack walking towards her with a huge smile.

"Hey baby girl. How are you doing?" he asked as the two hugged.

"Not too bad, what about you; shouldn't you be in Switzerland with Jase and Trini?" she asked

"No, we're done. They're both at NYU, you know they're pretty serious now. We could be going to a wedding soon." Zack said

"Really, Jason and Trini, I didn't see that one coming, she was always more interested in Billy. I guess two years together will bring people together."

"Yeah, they got closer as time went on. What about you, aren't you supposed to be in Florida, I never saw you in the Olympics. How come you stopped talking to us after you moved. And when the hell are you and Tommy getting married. Oh and how is everybody back home doing?" He asked all in one breath.

"Wow Zack slow down. First of all Tommy and I broke up, no I don't want to talk about it, and so I haven't talked to him or the others for over a year, the only one I have stayed in touch with is Aisha and she's in Africa. The rest is a long, depressing story that I would rather not go into right now."

Zack thought before speaking again and decided to let it go for now. "Well we did a lot of good in Switzerland. We set up some programs for students of all ages and we got to meet people from all over the world. It was a really great experience. So how did you end up here?"

"Well, actually I was planning on attending NYU, but Georgia offered me a brand new car and full scholarship to be on their gymnastics team. So I accepted. What about you?"

"I'm a dance and film major and Georgia has a great program, so I came here. Jase and Trini wanted to stay together and she was accepted to NYU, so Jason went with her."

The two continued catching up for the remainder of class and agreed to meet up for dinner later.

**Los Angeles  
August 1997**

When the rangers retired, most of them went separate ways. Tanya was in Los Angeles and still dating Adam. She had been accepted to the Los Angeles acting academy.

Kat had broken up with Tommy after realizing that they didn't really have a lot in common. That was what she told him anyway, it had more to do with the fact that she knew he could never love her like he had loved Kim, theirs was more of brotherly/sisterly type of love. She left the states for a dancing company in Europe.

After a summer of being a stunt double, Adam decided that Hollywood was where he wanted to be. So while he would be attending Stunt school in Burbank on the side, he would also be a full time college student with a major in film and drama.

Rocky also decided to grow up and go to college, he was majoring in Business and marketing with the hope of opening his own dojo after he finished school.

Tommy had spent all summer on the race track and to everyone's surprise, he used the money he earned racing to pay his tuition for college instead of the dojo everyone was sure he would open. Surprising them even more was his major of choice: Paleontology. He along with Rocky and Adam were attending UCLA, the three were renting an apartment on the beach.

"Man I can't wait to meet some hot chicks" Rocky said as he carried in the last of his things.

"Rocky you and Aisha only broke up like a week ago, shouldn't you still be upset" Adam said

"I am still upset, hence the reason I want to meet some new girls. You know, maybe hook up with a couple of them."

"Yeah come on Adam, you know the saying" Tommy said "the best way to get over someone is to get under someone else"

"Oh really, is that the philosophy you used with Kim, cause that worked out real well for you" Rocky said

"Ouch, Touché" Tommy said

"Come on guys let's put this stuff down and go out" Rocky said "We only have a week until school starts."

One week later, they set off to class. Tommy walked into his intro to ancient artifacts class and saw a short girl with long auburn hair waving him over as she spoke to another guy. Not sure what was going on, Tommy headed over to where they were standing.

"See, this the friend I was telling you about, sorry" she said to the guy who walked away with a dejected look. After he had walked away the girl turned to Tommy. "Thank you so much, you just saved me from him. I'm Haley by the way. Haley Ziktor" she said extending her hand.

"Any time Haley and I'm Tommy Oliver" he said pulling her into a hug, she stiffened at first then he whispered in her ear and she instantly relaxed. "He's still watching us, I figured a hug would be more convincing than a hand shake."

"Well then, thank you again. You've saved me twice in one day. Let me know how I can pay you back" she said as they sat down and the professor began speaking. Tommy took out his notebook to start writing and realized that he didn't have a pencil.

"Haley" he whispered, she looked over at him "Do you have an extra pencil, I was in such a hurry to make it on time that I forgot to grab one."

Haley just couldn't resist "You mean on you're first day of college, you didn't bring anything to write with." She said, he just gave her a sad look. She reached into her bag and pulled out a mechanical pencil. "Keep it, put it in the spiral of your notebook., maybe then you can keep track of it" she whispered.

"Thanks" he whispered before returning his attention to the professor.

Adam was meeting Tanya for lunch before his Intro to Acting class. Tanya spoke about her new school and how one of her favorite actresses of all time was one of her teachers. Adam filled her in on getting lost on the huge campus of UCLA. After lunch, they headed their separate ways.

Rocky had classes all morning, then a one hour lunch and classes all afternoon. He decided to stay on campus for lunch and check out the school cafeteria. His financial aid allowed for only so much to be put towards on campus meals, so he wanted to find as many cheap places on campus as he could.

When all was said and done, everyone survived their first week of college.

**Well that concludes the first chapter of my newest story. I probably won't update this very fast until I finish Find Your Way Home, which only has a few chapters left. I just needed a break from that story. I'm trying to finish that before I concentrate too much on anything else. But if the story goes over well, I may update this story sooner. Also, I hope to have a new chapter of Angel Grove 90215 out by next week, it's about 30 percent done. Thanks for reading and please review.**


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